This spectacular painting is life-sized and it dominates a small but perfectly formed show at the National Gallery. This is a portrait of Scrub, a bay horse belonging to the Marquess of Rockingham and was painted in about 1762. I’m no horse expert but you can tell that Stubbs has really spent time sketching the horse from life and also understands the skeleton and musculature of the beast so that it looks entirely plausible.

It’s really interesting to see the detailed sketches made in preparation for horse portraits. Apparently Stubbs was anxious to capture the physique of each horse and their nature too. Working from dissections he was able to work out the proportions, contours and skeletons of horses before, later, find a way to capture character and personality in the finished portrait.

I was very enchanted by this portrait of Dungannon with a lamb. Apparently the horse developed a close friendship with the sheep who wandered into his paddock and they became inseparable.

Stubbs produced much of his work for the Turf Gallery, specialising in equine art, and clearly it was a very popular and lucrative specialism for an artist. A great treat to see, close up, such spectacular paintings and the research which went into their creation.

George Stubbs (1724-1806) The show is on in Room 1 at the National Gallery until 31st May 2026.